Fuel tank for vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9944169-B2
Application number	US-201113823676-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2011
Priority date	Oct 5, 2010
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

A fuel tank for a vehicle is formed of a tank main body in which an upper tank and a lower tank are mutually joined to form a closed space in which fuel is housed, and a sub-tank fixed to a bottom surface part of the lower tank by spot welding, in which a plurality of rows of the spot welding are set along a longitudinal direction of the lower tank with an interval therebetween in a width direction of the sub-tank, at least one bead positioned between the rows of the spot welding and extending continuously along the longitudinal direction of the lower tank is formed on the bottom surface part of the lower tank, and a lower surface of the sub-tank has no portion that is not brought into contact with the bottom surface part of the lower tank except for the bead.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel tank for a vehicle, comprising:
a tank main body in which an upper tank and a lower tank are mutually joined to form a closed space in which fuel is housed; and
a sub-tank fixed to a bottom surface part of the lower tank by spot welding, wherein:
the lower tank consists of the bottom surface part, a sidewall part and a curved portion having an R shape as a joint portion between the bottom surface part and the sidewall part;
a plurality of rows of the spot welding are set along a longitudinal direction of the lower tank with an interval therebetween in a width direction of said sub-tank;
a bead positioned between the rows of the spot welding and extending continuously along the longitudinal direction of the lower tank is formed on the bottom surface part of the lower tank; and
the bead is formed as a convex bead projecting toward an outside of the fuel tank; wherein
a length of the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank is set to a length being 80% or more of a length of a flat portion of the bottom surface part of the lower tank in the longitudinal direction,
a width of the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank is set to a length of being 50% or more of the interval of two rows of the spot welding which are adjacent with the bead therebetween,
the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank has no discontinuous portion and extends continuously, and no other bead is formed on an extension in the longitudinal direction of the bead including the sidewall part and the curved portion,
a pair of sub-beads disposed on both sides of the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank are formed on a flat portion from an end face of the sub-tank to an end of the R shape of the curved portion of the lower tank in the width direction of the lower tank,
a lower surface of said sub-tank has no portion that is not brought into contact with the bottom surface part of the lower tank on an outside of the two rows of the spot welding except for the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank between the two rows of the spot welding,
the lower tank has a vibration mode in which spot-weld portions on the bottom surface part thereof are set to antinodes and nodes in the longitudinal direction, and
compared to a first reference natural frequency as a natural frequency when the length of the bead projecting toward the outside of the fuel tank between the two rows of the spot welding is the length of the flat portion of the bottom surface part, a reduction in a natural frequency in a secondary panel vibration mode is suppressed to 10% at the maximum.

2. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the bead is formed continuously from the bottom surface part to the sidewall part of the lower tank.

3. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the plurality of rows of the spot welding are disposed to be symmetric with respect to the bead formed on approximately a center line in the width direction of said sub-tank.

4. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein
each of embossed portions formed in a vertical direction with respect to the bottom surface part of the lower tank is provided between portions formed by the spot welding and adjacent in the row direction.

5. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein
the bead is formed as a meandering bead meandering in the width direction or a width-changed bead whose width is changed.

6. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
another bead is formed on a flat portion between an end face in the width direction of said sub-tank to the sidewall part of the lower tank, on the bottom surface part of the lower tank along the longitudinal direction of the lower tank.

7. The fuel tank for the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein:
said tank main body and said sub-tank are made of at least any one of materials of a surface treated steel sheet, a stainless steel, and an aluminum alloy;
the lower tank is formed of a material; and
said sub-tank is also formed of the material.

Assignees

• Yosida Yuuichi
• Yamamoto Shuji
• Seto Atsushi
• Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp

Inventors

• Yosida Yuuichi
• Yamamoto Shuji
• Seto Atsushi

Classifications

• B60K2015/03111

  Swirl pots · CPC title

• B60K2015/03105

  with supplementary interior tanks inside the fuel tank · CPC title

• B60K15/03 Primary

  Fuel tanks · CPC title

• B60K2015/03032

  Manufacturing of fuel tanks · CPC title

• B60K2015/0346

  by welding · CPC title